Temptation, frustration
by ida-emilie
Summary: Loki Laufeyson teaches English, mythology and history. Many of his students like him, many dislike him. One student in particular is drawn by his reserved personality and wants to learn more about him. And as he gets drawn in he learns about the solitude of Loki Laufeyson. It is not even certain that he can help, so what is he even doing?
1. Chapter 1

His everyday routines are always the same.

After work he goes to the school library with a cup of coffee. He sits there for at least three hours, thoughts deep in the books in front of him. There is always a mixture of English and American literature and nonfiction books. Lying next to his right hand is a notebook and a pen. He prepares future curriculums as if there was no day tomorrow. The students, many of them are students of his own, often shoot him stolen glances and wonder why he always comes there after school. He surely must have better things to do?

When he gets home from the library to his empty apartment, he throws his shoes into a corner in the hall and lazily uses a hanger for his dark overcoat and scarf. Then he enters the living room and turns on the television out of pure habit. It is not because he finds the common entertainment (if you could even say that) to be interesting, but he likes to have sounds in the apartment. Voices that hunt away the pressing silence he is so used to.

When he's turned on the television he goes into the kitchen and silently curses himself for forgetting to go to the convenience store, but he'll surely remember to do it tomorrow. He always forgets though. He will grab some sort of sustenance and sit down at the table in the kitchen, still pretending the noises from the television are actual people, pretending that he doesn't live in complete solitude.

Pretending that he hasn't pushed away all the people in his life that mattered.

After that he takes a shower and prepares his lessons for the next day. He does so in a very tidy manner and he leaves nothing to chance. It is always in the same order: first English, then history and last mythology. Then he turns off the television and retires to his bedroom with a book or two.

His everyday routines are always the same.

* * *

It is a typical Tuesday, his first class is American history then he has a break for an entire class and after that two classes of ancient mythology, one class of European history and lastly a class of English. A rather tiresome and long day.

"Excuse me sir, but didn't Martin Luther believe in the human spirit as a free thing?" Loki Laufeyson raises his eyes from the papers on the desk in front of him and localises the source of the question, _ah there!_ He puts his pen down and smiles wickedly, "Are you certain that you should have chosen European history if you can't even remember the basic view points of the most important historical figures." He answers and receives a flushed murmur in the lines of 'I'm sorry, sir'. A couple of the other students either chuckle or cough.

Loki can't say he is loved by all his students, but at the same time he can say that he isn't hated by all of them either. Quite a few dislike him; his snarky remarks and stiff to-the-point assignments, but equally many find great pleasure in his teaching methods and... Sarcastic personality. And he likes teaching, no doubt about that. He enjoys knowing that he can use his (not insignificant) knowledge to get other people to take more interest in things he believes to be important.

He enjoys being in power as well, loves the feeling of knowing that he can decide whether or not a student will have a good day or a bad day. He makes the decisions, he is a god.

But there is one student. A student of his English classes over whom he has no authority. It makes him feel powerless somehow, and he hates that feeling. The student is well known and has been to the principal's office a number of times for his rude behaviour and disrespect towards teachers. At the beginning it surprised Loki that he never got expelled, but he quickly found out from another teacher that said student was the son of a local billionaire. And a charming kid at that.

His name is Tony Stark and he is a true pain in the butt, not just to Loki, but to the entire staff. He rarely does his homework on time and has been spotted bunking off from classes quite often, not even caring about being caught. Even the janitor hates him, since he sometimes uses the school facilities to make odd experiments with his friend Bruce Banner (a student Loki doesn't really know nor care about). So obviously the janitor dislikes the two, seeing how he has to take extra time off his hands to clean up their mess.

And on top of all that Loki can never find a way to frighten him. No matter what snarky remark he comes up with, the young student will always have something equally sarcastic and clever for a comeback. And that part especially annoys Loki to no end.

So when one day he has assigned a biographic analysis on Ernest Hemingway's "Men without women" and young Mr. Stark (as always) turns up without anything Loki finally snaps. Because he's had a long day and the exhaust set on his Nissan primera came loose on his way to school and the girl in the coffee shop he'd visited during lunch break had given him decaf coffee by a mistake. So if he isn't allowed to snap then who is?

"Look here, child, I am sick and tired with your eternal trying to prove yourself over the other students. You will do a custom assignment and you will do it before next Thursday, or I swear to my Gods that I will make the rest of your school time a living hell." He practically spits it at the young man, who just shoots him a shit eating grin, despise the other students surrounding him stepping back a bit. "Easy there, tiger, as far as I remember this isn't Professor Fury's class,"

Loki's face reddens at being compared to the infamous Professor Fury. The man is known by all students and staff members to be a frightening and ever-pissed monster. Rumours have it that he only works part time at the school and is actually the boss of a mafia somewhere in town, and even though Loki would love to say that he holds no fear at all towards the man it would be a lie. Loki has only seen two students openly go up and talk to said Professor, a red head girl and her ash blond boyfriend. He wonders who they are, what their relations to Professor Fury is, since they don't seem to be directly scared of him.

Another thing entirely is that Professor Fury spits like a whale.

"Stark. Assignment or hell, your choice." He tugs at the neck of his shirt as he regains his calm voice, trying to show off one of his more common smirks while he's at it. He doesn't feel like he's succeeding though. His student doesn't look like he believes the threat to be something serious. But Loki will make sure that it is, oh he will do his best. It will be a pleasure to be able to go in the staff room next Thursday and tell the other teachers that he's carrying an assignment handed in by Tony Stark.

Professor Coulson will not believe a word.

That night when Loki returns to his apartment he doesn't follow his everyday routine strictly to the letter. Sure he kicks off his shoes and hangs his coat and scarf on the hanger, but he quickly finds himself too busy with planning a single custom assignment to care much for turning on the television and the voices that normally fill out the empty space.

His everyday routines might not always be the same after all.


	2. Chapter 2

English? English is a boring subject, because hey, Tony knows English already, why would he need to be taught it in school? After all, he's been speaking it since his first "mama", so it's not like he's new to the subject. It's really uninteresting to him. Well, there's _one_ interesting thing about English, the subject, though. And that's the teacher.

Professor Laufeyson - Loki Laufeyson. To the objective observer he is an attractive adult, mid to late thirties, well built and tall as a tree. Most people would agree that he is objectively rather eye-catching. The first time Tony saw his English professor he didn't deny that fact, and he quickly found out that the handsome teacher was intelligent, funny and interesting to boot.

It was obvious already then that Tony would be drawn to the teacher, in whom he found a sparring partner for his sarcastic outbursts and remarks. At first he had thought of it as a subconscious search for a father figure (actually he hadn't, that had been his friend Natasha's first explanation, Tony just liked to take credit for her ideas once in a while), but it really wasn't, was it now?

He knows it's become more than that by now.

And when Professor Laufeyson threatens Tony that he'll make his school life hell, Tony doesn't wince, he only flashes the teacher a grin. And on the inside he throws his hands in the air in triumph. He has gained the full attention of this man, screw the fact that it's negative attention. It gives him a thrill to know that the teacher's eyes are on him – only on him.

So when Tony walks up to Professor Laufeyson during class next day, he expects the teacher to be snarky and smirking and maybe even still a bit angry about yesterday, but the teacher sitting at the table just gives him a short, stern look. "What are you doing up here?" he asks, brows raised in question.

"Assignment," Tony smirks and reaches out with one hand, expecting to receive a paper on what he has to spend his next week on (even though he doesn't plan on doing the assignment, but he is still interested in what Professor Laufeyson has come up with), but instead the teacher just frowns at him with a smirk flashing momentarily by on his face.

"Please, Stark, sit down, you're disturbing the class," the teacher just turns back to the rest of his students (who decided to take advantage of the situation, but are now cut off from their chattering again), giving no further commands to the young man standing next to him. Tony is quite baffled.

Was he just brushed off?

"I told you to sit down," the teacher says, still with his eyes on the other students, but now with a serious frown on his face. A don't-play-games-with-me-frown. Tony would be lying if he said that this didn't startle him, so he goes to sit down again. Earning a confused but wicked grin from his buddy Clint who mouths the words "brushed you completely off." Tony replies with a raised middle finger.

He deserves attention!

Later, during recess, Natasha nudges Tony in the side as they're walking over the outdoors area of the school. "What is it?" Tony is still a bit on an edge after being brushed off earlier, but when he looks in the direction Natasha is pointing a smile grows on his lips. Because right there underneath the chestnut tree he could see professor Laufeyson approach them.

He looks over his shoulder to send Natasha a grin, but as usually the girl is gone. He's certain she's a ninja or something, because her vanishing skills are magnificent! Okay, that's fine with him though! He'd actually rather tackle his English teacher by himself, it's more fun like that.

"I thought I might find you here," the professor says as the two close in on each other. Tony grins at him, still a bit annoyed that he was pretty much iignored/i during class earlier. That was very rude. He is about to reply when Loki breaks him off, "I have something for you," and there are the assignment papers.

And a book.

Ugh, Tony does _not_ like the look of that. "What is that?" he points at the book in the professor's hand. "I really do hope you know what this is, Stark."

"A book."

"Indeed. Glad you could recognize it."

"You said the assignment was for Thursday."

"I did."

Tony tries to get his mind around this. So the assignment is for Thursday. And here his teacher has brought him a _book_. Maybe it's a collection of short stories? Maybe he just thinks that Tony reads really fucking fast. "You've lost me," he ends up yielding.

It is clear from the look in professor Laufeyson's eyes that he caught onto the fact that he won this round as well. "Let me enlighten you then," he sits down on the grass underneath a birch tree. Tony isn't sure what to do and he ends up standing awkwardly with his arms crossed over his chest. "Your subject for the assignment is _'sexual deviation'_," Tony looks at him. Just a bit startled to tell the truth.

That's the freakiest subject ever, isn't it? "And what is the book for then?" he's still paranoid about the book, and he might as well get it out there. Loki lifts a finger and smiles wickedly. "You have to draw parallels to a book or movie we have worked with in class." He holds out the book to Tony, who takes it (steady hands, Tony, don't show him you're uneasy. Teachers can smell fear!) and turns it in his hands a few times.

"_Lolita_," he reads the title out loud to taste the sound of the word. It's a paperback with a black cover and the title written on it over and over again in different colours. One of the titles is larger than the others and white and underneath it is the author's name. Vladimir Nabokov. Russian? He flips to the first page and sees that the author wrote it in his second language – English. The pages are yellowed with age, and they are a little cleaner in the centre than at the corners. The book is old.

"It is for drawing references and parallels to your assignment, I would like it back afterwards." Loki leans against the birch tree and looks peaceful out in the sun. Come to think of it, this is one of the first times Tony has seen him out in the sun. It looks becoming on him.

Tony blinks a few times and looks at the book again. "You mean this is your private copy?" he receives a nod from the teacher and doesn't really understand why Loki didn't just give him a copy from the school's library. But he doesn't complain. "Here's the description of your assignment," the teacher hands him the papers.

"Good luck. I expect to see your finished assignment on Thursday before school closes." The teacher rises from his seat under the tree and brushes grass off the back of his coat. Tony now wonders how he could sit on the cold ground, a day in November.

"And if I don't?" he just needs to defy the teacher one last time today, otherwise he hasn't filled his daily quota, and that's never good! Professor Laufeyson just looks at him, with a bored look on his face now. That man changes facial expressions at the speed of lightening. "I already told you: if not, then I shall make the rest of your school time hell."

Tony is sure he'll win this round at least. "Oh come on, what are you going to do? Spank me? Nothing you can do can harm me, professor!" But to Tony's surprise his teacher just smiles back at him. And with a short nod, right before Loki takes his leave he says: "You didn't seem to take the cold shoulder earlier that well, did you now?"

And then he's off. Leaving a flustered Tony by a birch tree with an old copy of a Russian-American book and a few pieces of papers describing what he _should_ think about the next couple of days.

But all he can think about is his English teacher.


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the day Tony is absolutely unable of focusing. Not in the way he normally doesn't focus (because when he does that, then it's one hundred percent deliberately, okay maybe not that time when he thought Natasha didn't know he was staring at her boobs), no this is different, even if the teachers and other students don't notice the distinction.

But to the observer it looks the exact same as whenever Tony decides not to listen to the teachers, so there aren't any special precautions taken toward the young man, who just sits there and stares absentmindedly out of the window. The hand he rests his chin in blurs out the small smirk on his face.

Of course he had been flustered a few hours ago, but to be honest, who wouldn't have been? His teacher really was a smug son of a bitch, and even though it'd been hard to admit he knew that Loki Laufeyson actually _could_ make his school life a living hell. If he so wished.

Tony shifts in his seat and looks at the math teacher in front of him. And why he wish that? Tony is sure that the outburst that led to the assignment was definitely caused by something else than hatred toward Tony's person. More than definitely, it _was_. Because Loki has no reason to hate Tony, none at all. And even if he did, he's never showed any sign of disliking Tony, with all their sparring and back-talking, Tony can't imagine any (seriously) hard feelings between the two. No, the chemistry between them is definitely something else, and even though he knows it's just wishful thinking, he kind of likes the thought that Loki Laufeyson could have 'the hots' for him.

He snickers at the thought.

"Tony Stark, would you care to share your thoughts with the class?" the teacher turns around at the sound of Tony's voice and he's probably in trouble, but it's nothing he can't handle. It's nothing he hasn't tried before, so he just smiles and opens his mouth to reply…

* * *

Tony unlocks the door and enters his home loudly, because hey, there's no-one home to disturb. There's never anyone home when he gets home from school, but that's okay. That's fine, he likes it that way! He likes to be able to play rock music as loud as he wants, without his dad coming running to him screaming to turn that noise down because he can't work.

He throws his back-pack off his shoulder and flips his sneakers off before walking barefoot into the kitchen area. He opens the fridge and hears a well-known voice over the sound systems. "_Sir, I am sure your father would rather you waited with eating until he returns,_" "I can't care less what the old man says, I need to celebrate."

Tony ignores Jarvis' attempts at convincing him otherwise as he makes himself a BLT. Easy on the lettuce, plenty of bacon and roasted on both sides. Jarvis is his dad's latest invention, an artificial intelligence system, and a rather good one to boot. It was Tony who named him, though, and Howard just let him. It's a little victory over his father, who doesn't know what the name is an acronym of – _Just A Rather Very Intelligent System_. It's annoying how much attention Howard has given this machinery. Really annoying! So very –

"Ouch!" Tony yelps as droplets of blood gather on his index finger where he just cut himself, as he was chopping the tomatoes while his thoughts were completely elsewhere. He quickly sticks the hurt finger into his mouth and sucks on it. "Shit," he inspects the cut and fortunately it's not deep, so he leaves it be. Better remember to suck on it once in a while, though. Fucking AI.

* * *

The bleeding has stopped and Tony is lounging in the larger leather couch with his feet on the sofa table and the last bite of his BLT lying next to his feet (that bite you never really want, because it's all bread and lettuce and ew, gross). His favourite song is blasting on the sound systems, overruling the voice of the AI completely.

On the floor under the table lies Tony's back-pack, which he fetched a moment or two ago. And right there in his lap lies _the book_. For some reason it feels heavy like a rock, even though it's a small paperback. He knows it shouldn't feel that heavy and that it shouldn't feel so hard to just toss it in a corner of his room until the assignment was to be handed in (which he still didn't intend to do), but just knowing that this is _his_ book...

Oh boy.

He brushes the front page gently, letting his hurt index finger run slowly over the rills in the cover, that have all come from bending the book too often. It is clear to him that this book has been read many times. Loki has had it in his hands many times. Wow, were Tony's hands really this sweaty a moment ago?

He should put the book down and move on with his life, but he really just can't. He's too fascinated with his English teacher to just stop and move on and go out with some hot red head, who his dad wouldn't like. Although it would be much, much easier to do just that – piss his dad off and get a nice and sweet little girlfriend to date – he has no intention of going down that path. Because yeah, it'd be easier, but where's the fun in easy?

Starks don't deal with easy, Tony included.

No, the book will stay, that much is certain right now. Stay right there. In his lap. He swallows hard and shifts uncomfortably in the couch. The book moves with him and starts sliding off his lap. He reaches for it and takes it in both his hands. This is _actually_ Loki Laufeyson's book.

He brings it up in front of his nose and takes a long drag. It smells of old book, naturally. Like a library or a second hand bookstore. And on the inside of the back cover is written in a neat hand writing _To my Loki, happy birthday dear_. Somehow having this book, holding it in his hands like this, feels wrong. It feels so intimate, like he's invading Loki's private space.

He doesn't directly dislike that thought.

And there it appears again, that uncomfortable tightness in his jeans that forces him to shift in his seat. Damn, getting turned on by a book is weird, and Tony is aware of that. He leans back against the backrest and sighs with closed eyes.

On the other hand he _is_ home alone.

With his eyes still closed he moves his right hand (his left one is still holding the book up in front of his face as he breathes in the smell of library) to the front of his pants. And there on the inside of his eyelids he can see his English teacher sitting peacefully in front of a birch tree. When he moves his hand over his crotch the picture dissolves and changes into professor Laufeyson standing in the school's library, eyes fixed on Tony's study group, who are laughing and joking. No... eyes fixed on _Tony_.

Tony can feel his mouth turn dry, and suddenly he finds himself putting the book down to have two hands available. His eyes are still closed as he unbuttons and unzips his pants, pulling his dick from its silk boxer-prison out in the open. He's already more than half hard from the ecstasy that the smell of the book and the images have given him.

As he begins dragging his hand slowly up his shaft his mind moves from the sober images to more messy ones. Loki grinning wickedly at him in the hallway as they share an inside joke. Loki's eyes glaring at Tony hungrily, like a lioness would look at a gazelle. Eating him up. Loki's hands on Tony, Tony's hands on Loki. His hand moves faster up and down his cock, as if these images were pumped out of it. Produced by the jerking.

He doesn't dare to open his eyes, afraid that the pictures will all disappear as soon as he does so, instead he feels around the couch with his free hand and grabs the book again. Brings it up to his nose and drags a long breath of dusty book and he pretends that he can smell Loki's cologne on it too.

And the imaginated scent drives forth other pictures: Tony naked, letting Loki explore his body while the teacher grins at him, calls him his 'pretty little thing' his 'pet', and Tony doesn't mind, Tony lets the much more experienced adult do whatever he pleases, because that's what will please Tony as well. Tony imagines the opposite, Loki lying underneath him in a large bed, sprawled naked across the sheets, once again chuckling at Tony's attempts at seeming more experienced than he is. Then a hot wet kiss.

"Oh, fuck!" Tony hisses as his breath comes out in short gasps from his oncoming orgasm. The thing that really drives him over the edge is the thought of Loki's lips.

Loki's fucking perfect lips.

When those lips kiss him in his naughty daydreams he can't control himself any longer. His body jerks, one hand chooses to leave his crotch as if it was pleased with its work and now wanted to sit back and relax (maybe even watch the show, dirty little hand!), the other hand chooses to get closer to avoid a sticky sofa table later.

Bad luck that the latter of the hands was still clutching a half open book.

As Tony returns back to earth from the definitely not bad orgasm, he just stares at the book with wide (and slightly horrified) eyes. "Shit."

Maybe professor Laufeyson shouldn't have given him that book.


	4. Chapter 4

Maybe he shouldn't have given him that book.

Loki is sitting at the small dining table in his kitchen, lurking over a portion of the same tuna casserole he's been eating for the past three days (he really should go to the grocery store soon). He tries to stop his mind from wandering too much, since he has assignments he needs to correct and classes he needs to prepare, but he can't keep his thoughts away from the book he lent to Tony Stark.

It was a gift from his adoptive mother Frigga when he went to college. The two of them had always shared a bond that Loki didn't have with any of his other family members. He'd always been mummy's little boy. She had read children's stories to him when he was little, and whenever he'd gone book shopping she'd asked if she could tag along, so through the time she had ended up buying more than half of the books he'd ever owned for him.

Lolita had been the last book she had ever bought for him.

Getting up from his seat at the table Loki decides that he is no longer hungry, and that he should get to do some more work on correcting those assignments. And he tries not to worry about the book, surely that kid can keep it safe and in one piece until he hands in his custom assignment... Right? He's not entirely sure, and the more he thinks about it, the less he doubts it, bringing him to think more about it – an evil circle actually.

And then, as fate would have it, right when he is trying to think up a scheme that'll allow him to get the book back without messing up Tony's assignment, the door bell rings. Not just once but twice, and Loki freezes in his steps. He knows that the following scenario can be one out of three possible.

First scenario is that it is the land lady coming to talk to him, but he knows that this cannot be it, since whenever he tries to call her up to his apartment she tells him that she has something else to take care of, but he knows she's just lying to him because she's too lazy to use the stairs. And he has paid this month's rent.

Second scenario is that it's the pizza delivery man, who's mistaken Loki's apartment for somebody else's. But it cannot be that either, because the pizza delivery man who does this only works Friday through Monday, and he also uses to ring the bell three times.

Third scenario is the worst though. Third scenario is that it is _him_ at the door. And Loki definitely doesn't want to have anything to do with him right now, so he prays that it's the land lady coming to tell him that there's vermin and he needs to evacuate or that the pizza delivery man has decided to take on more working days than his incompetent butt should be able to.

But he knows that it _is_ the third scenario he should await when he goes to the door. And so he braces himself for what is to come.

"Brother! It is me, let me in."

His brother's voice is loud and deep and cuts easily through over the door entry phone, waking up memories of the past. Loki sighs and considers pretending that he is not home, but he knows that Thor Odinson will not believe it, and will definitely find another way in. In the end Loki really has no better option than to let his brother in and hope he'll be on his way again soon. So he buzzes him in.

After a short while there is a knock at the door, and through the spy Loki recognizes the blond giant that is Thor Odinson. Loki moans to himself and opens the door, readying himself for the hug he expects to get.

"Little brother, how glorious to see you!" the tall, broad-shouldered blond bag of muscles grins and pulls Loki in for a brotherly embrace. Loki feels his ribs give way as the built man presses his arms against his chest, and the memories of them doing the exact same years ago flood over him. It is warming, but he forces the thoughts away and with them Thor's arms.

"Remember we're not really brothers," he says coldly and officially invites the other man in with a wave of his arm. Thor's eyes go from glowing to glooming and he protests quietly "Even so, we still grew up together and I consider you my brother."

Loki only shrugs.

Thor is lounging lazily in Loki's couch when Loki brings in a pot of tea to the other man's amusement, "Tea? You must be kidding! Do you not have any beer in your apartment?" but he takes the two cups from Loki and gently puts them down on the sofa table.

Loki sits down on the couch next to Thor and pours the tea so quickly that he spills a few drops on the floor. "So, what have you come for?" he asks, lifting the cup to his mouth to blow it a tad colder. He really dislikes that Thor is here. Thor is loud, Thor is a nuisance, but most of all Thor is a reminder of what Loki let go.

And that's the worst part of it all.

"Can I not come to visit my brother without a secret agenda?" the other man asks and takes a sip from his scalding tea. "I'm sure you can't," Loki answers and decides his tea is cold enough now to drink from. "So I'll repeat: what are you here for?" he stares at his adoptive brother over the tea-cup and hopes for... Something he isn't sure what is.

Thor puts down his cup and gives Loki a hurt look, "I was just passing through the city when a man, who apparently works at your school, asked me to come and give a lecture. So I'm stuck in the city for a couple of days and –"

"And you need a place to stay," Loki finishes his sentences and sighs. Thor's eyes gleam and he nods hopefully. Loki takes his time, finishing his first cup of coffee before answering his brother's plea of letting him temporarily live with him.

"Forget about it."

"But, Loki –"

"I said no. You can find a good hotel nearby, I'll even give you directions," he turns to face Thor straight on and his eyes are dark, "But I am under no circumstances living under the same roof as you ever again." The tone in his voice makes it clear what kind of statement it is, and even Thor wouldn't be able to read it as anything but final. Thor is _not_ sleeping in his apartment.

The atmosphere is heavy and dark, and both of them wait for the other to break the ice that suddenly froze them to their seats. Thor with his muscular and rough looks and Loki with his slim, delicate looks. It ought to have been clear to Loki when they were children that there was no way on earth they could be blood related.

In the end Thor breaks the silence, "Fine, I'll find a hotel room," he says and it is clear that he's trying to regain the relaxed atmosphere from before. "Now, tell me what you've been up to!" he demands.

Loki sighs yet once more and pours himself another cup of tea. He wants to tell him what he's been doing, how he's been and all those other things, he wants to ask about the family, but talking to his foster brother just hurts too much. So instead he leads the subject onto Thor's job, and Thor enthusiastically grabs the opportunity to include Loki in his life.

At least this visit got Loki's mind off that book.


End file.
